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EXHIBIT 99.2
Xxxx Xxxxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
General Magic TSI Communications
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xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx
GENERAL MAGIC AND ONSTAR ENTER INTO TWO YEAR
VIRTUAL ADVISOR HOSTING AGREEMENT
General Magic to operate Virtual Advisor from its state-of-the-art
Network Operations Center
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (May 3, 2001) - General Magic, Inc. (Nasdaq: GMGC), a
pioneer and innovator in voice application software and services, today
announced it will provide comprehensive, on-site voice application hosting
services for OnStar's Virtual Advisor, a new Web-based information system for
vehicles.
Under the terms of the agreement, General Magic will support OnStar
Virtual Advisor with two years of monitoring, supervision and maintenance at
General Magic's fully equipped, state-of-the-art Network Operations Center
(NOC).
General Magic has more than four years of experience hosting business and
consumer voice applications for more than two million users in its NOC, located
within General Magic's headquarters in the Silicon Valley. This center will be
the primary site for network management and troubleshooting, software
distribution and updating, and coordination with affiliated networks.
OnStar's Virtual Advisor, which brings drivers access to e-mail, stock
quotes, weather updates, news and sports in a completely voice-activated manner,
is built on General Magic's scalable magicTalk Voice Gateway, General Magic's
VoiceXML-based server-side software that allows quick and easy voice application
development and deployment, and utilizes General Magic's hosting and
professional services to support its rapid growth. There are currently more than
one million active OnStar subscribers - a number that is expected to quadruple
in the next two years.
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"Drivers expect our service to be available to them anytime, anywhere,"
said Xxxx Xxxxx, president of OnStar, "We want our customers to have the best
available care when they need it. We selected General Magic Inc., because they
could build and deploy a solution quickly and scale that solution alongside our
rapidly expanding subscriber base."
Since its launch in 1997, General Magic's secure, seismically reinforced
NOC has successfully hosted more than two million business and consumer users.
In addition to supporting OnStar, General Magic's on-site NOC allows General
Magic to provide value added services to businesses in the telecommunications
industry, customer relationship management support for enterprise needs, and
e-commerce solutions for Internet customers. Customers can elect to segregate
their applications for maximum security, or they may share resources to achieve
lower cost. A trained operations staff is available 24x7 for quick response to
operational problems and for conducting routine maintenance.
"General Magic's NOC architecture is built with the expectation that our
customers' markets will grow very quickly," said Xxxx Xxxxxxx, vice president,
network operations at General Magic. "Our technology infrastructure, trained,
on-site experts and blue-chip industry partnerships allow OnStar to offer a
comprehensive, cost-effective service capable of growing as quickly as its
subscriber base."
ABOUT GENERAL MAGIC
General Magic provides software and supporting voice dialog design and hosting
services that enable companies to quickly and efficiently provide anytime,
anywhere access to information and services over the telephone. General Magic's
VoiceXML-based solutions enable businesses to easily integrate voice access into
enterprise applications using a broad selection of speech recognition
technologies and telephony interfaces. These solutions help businesses improve
customer relations, deliver value-added service and provide unlimited access to
content. General Magic is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For additional
information, visit the company's web site at: xxxx://xxx.xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.
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General Magic notes that the forward-looking statements in this press release
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause
industry trends, or actual results, performance or achievement to be materially
different from any future trends, results, performance or achievements expressed
or implied by these statements.
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These include, among others, risks and uncertainties concerning the adequacy of
the Company's financial resources to execute its business plan; market
acceptance of the Company's technologies and services; the Company's ability to
attract, retain and motivate key technical, marketing and management personnel;
the ability of the Company to establish and maintain relationships with
businesses that have high volume customer interactions, and to establish
alliances with companies that offer technology solutions for such businesses;
the challenges inherent in the development, delivery and implementation of
complex technologies; the ability of the Company's third party technology
partners to timely develop, license or support technology necessary to the
Company's services; and the Company's ability to respond to competitive
developments. These and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in General
Magic's Registration Statement on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on August 14, 2000.
General Magic and magicTalk are trademarks of General Magic, Inc., which may be
registered in some jurisdictions.
